"Hateful…!"
Seeing Kuina ignore him so completely, Zoro clenched his teeth in frustration—but still stepped aside.
He wasn't the same hot-headed idiot who'd once barged in to challenge the dojo alone.
After losing to Kuina over a thousand times, he knew all too well how far away from her level he still was.
And besides, handling dojo challengers was the job of the top student.
"After I defeat you, can I challenge the dojo master?"
El looked straight at Kuina, who was about the same height as him, then glanced briefly at Zoro.
"Or do I have to defeat everyone here before I can challenge him?"
"…If you can defeat me," Kuina replied, her brows knitting slightly at his "arrogance," "your next opponent will be the dojo master."
From his place on a cushion off to the side, Koushirou sat cross-legged with his eyes half-closed. He didn't intervene—he simply nodded faintly in Kuina's direction.
"In that case, let's begin."
El removed the sword at his waist and handed it to Carina, who stood beside him.
Then he stepped with Kuina into the central training area.
They walked to a wooden barrel filled with bamboo swords. El took one out, turned to Kuina—already holding her own bamboo sword—and followed the etiquette he'd been shown long ago by the temporary instructor who'd taught him as a child.
"My name is El. Please take care of me."
"My name is Kuina. Please take care of me."
Looking at El's steady posture and grip, so unlike the flailing amateur Zoro had been when he first came here, Kuina felt a flicker of excitement in her chest.
As a genius who could defeat adults at the age of nine, she stood alone at the top of Isshin Dojo's students.
Other than her father, no one in the dojo could beat her.
Kuina exuded a confidence that made both Carina and Nami quietly envious.
That palpable aura was made from countless victories stacked one upon another.
If she could maintain that aura into the future, the moment she touched Haki, her growth would be twice as fast with half the effort.
Even before crossing swords, El had to admit:
Before today, Carina had been the most outstanding peer he had met.
But now, with Kuina standing in front of him, the light around her completely overshadowed Carina's.
It was a shame.
A girl like this—who absolutely had the potential to stand alongside someone like Gion someday—was supposed to die because of a stupid accident, falling down the stairs.
Thinking of that, El looked at the girl before him—who, like Nami and Carina, had no filthy aura to disgust him—and a thought suddenly rose in his heart.
Maybe… he could change her fate.
"Ready… begin!"
The middle-aged man from earlier now stood at their side in the role of referee, calling out the start of the match.
"Hah!"
Kuina didn't notice El's brief distraction.
With a short shout, she gripped the bamboo sword in both hands and brought it down toward him in a sharp overhead cut.
The bamboo blade grew larger in El's vision as it descended.
He snapped back to full focus—then chose to reveal a completely different dimension of swordsmanship in front of her and the watching students.
Swoosh—
Everyone saw El give a light, almost casual, swing of his own bamboo sword.
A razor-cold sensation—like a thin white line—flashed across Kuina's eyes.
Then—
Her hands suddenly felt light, as if the sword had vanished.
But when she looked down, the hilt was still in her grip.
Only the blade of her bamboo sword had been sliced clean off, dropping to the floor in two neat pieces.
From the smooth, perfectly even cut, it looked like someone had taken the sharpest sword in the world and simply sheared it apart.
In reality, the tool that had cut it was not some divine blade.
It was just another ordinary bamboo sword, made for beginners.
There was no doubt—
The sight of El cutting a bamboo sword with a bamboo sword left everyone frozen.
Even Koushirou, who had been silently observing from the back, was taken aback.
His usually sleepy eyes opened a little wider, a rare look of shock flickering in them as he stared at El, standing calm with the bamboo sword in hand.
"…A swordsman who can cut steel."
The words slipped softly from Koushirou's lips, but in the silent dojo, everyone heard them clearly.
"Master… Master Swordsman?!"
"What's a Master Swordsman? It sounds really strong!"
"That's insane… how did he cut Sister Kuina's sword like that?"
"Idiot, that wasn't 'breaking' it. He cut it!"
"Really? But how do you cut a bamboo sword… with another bamboo sword?"
"Uhh… I dunno either!"
The dojo instantly erupted into chatter.
Everyone reacted differently.
The middle-aged instructor and Kuina, both versed in real swordsmanship, stared at El in genuine fear and awe.
The beginners and trainee swordsmen, who didn't fully understand, could only babble questions without answers.
"Cutting steel… a Master Swordsman…"
Kuina repeated her father's words under her breath, looking at El with a complicated expression.
She had never imagined—
That the boy standing in front of her, someone about her own age, would already be a swordsman capable of cutting steel.
No wonder he could slice her bamboo sword so easily with his own.
But… wasn't this too young?
Someone her age, already mastering the legendary "cutting through steel"…
Could she really become the world's greatest swordsman like she'd sworn?
Was what her father said true?
Was a woman really destined to be inferior to a man?
In that moment, the confidence Kuina had built through countless victories shattered.
Memories of her father's seriousness whenever he spoke of her "limits" as a girl, and the way he had begun taking more notice of Zoro, flickered rapidly through her mind like a slideshow.
Her throat tightened.
She bit her lower lip hard, turned around, and ran out of the dojo with a look of unwillingness and humiliation on her face.
"K-Kuina…"
It was the first time Zoro had ever seen Kuina lose.
It was also the first time he'd witnessed a power so far beyond his understanding.
All of Kuina's tumbling thoughts were reflected clearly in El's mind.
But he didn't try to stop her.
Nor did he comfort her.
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